Hi,

I need to update the site again – newer technology, so expect some changes over the next few days and things not looking great for a day or two.

Thanks

David

Hi,

I need to update the site again – newer technology, so expect some changes over the next few days and things not looking great for a day or two.

Thanks

David

Well, this is one of those “I should have called support earlier mails”.  I’ve been trying for about 3 months to get my davidoverton.com domain transferred from one vendor to the vendor I use for all the others.  All attempts failed, so last night I phoned Australia to try and get it fixed and now the transfer is underway.  However, the transfer has a 4 day “cooling off” period, so the domain is in limbo.  Most people still access via uksbsguy.com, so most traffic will get through, but expect a few problems!!

ttfn

David

Well, this is one of those “I should have called support earlier mails”.  I’ve been trying for about 3 months to get my davidoverton.com domain transferred from one vendor to the vendor I use for all the others.  All attempts failed, so last night I phoned Australia to try and get it fixed and now the transfer is underway.  However, the transfer has a 4 day “cooling off” period, so the domain is in limbo.  Most people still access via uksbsguy.com, so most traffic will get through, but expect a few problems!!

ttfn

David

The Console setup process (Once SBS is set up, how to do the basic configuration through the management console) sets up SBS 2008 for use.  One of the options is for a spit personality Office Live for Small Businesses solution.  Why split, well the e-mail items are held on the SBS 2008 Exchange server, as will the report site services, but the public web site and WSS external collaboration sites will be hosted on the Office Live servers.  This means that things like DNS need a bit more management, but that can all be handled for you.

This is how I configured mine:

Start the process from the console and say I want a new site.  Since SBS 2008 already knows the external address of the SBS box, it offers to enable the DNS to be redirected to Office Live for the www.mydomain.com address

We then get into the Office Live sign-up process via the web.  One word of note here, I had installed the box as a US system, not a UK system, so it took me to the US site.  If you change the language settings in the browser (Tools/Options/Language) to EN-GB, then you will get the UK site.  You can see form the pictures below that the sign-up process is simple and secure.

Once you have finished on the web site it all you need to do is to complete the sign in details below.

Now for me, that was not the end of the story – the verification e-mail was simply not arriving, even though I requested it to be resent several times.  Eventually I discovered it was the spam filter settings rejecting the mail.  I have reported this as a bug into Microsoft, but in the mean time, to overcome the situation, have a look at How to change spam settings on Exchange 2007 / SBS 2008 to enable some / all / more spam to be delivered to an account for analysis to see how I resolved it.

One again that is it for this stage.  Finally, all the SBS 2008 entries can be found at http://davidoverton.com/blogs/doverton/archive/tags/SBS+2008/default.aspx

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David

I’ve been working working with Nicholas King, giving him a bit of a hard time to get all the SBS ducks lines up and I noticed from the SBS Down Under site that they had a link to Nicholas’s first video – a very quick walk through of the new RWW.  If you like it, go to Nicholas’s site and tell him what you want to see next:

Nicholas King : SBS 2008 Video Tidbit

Having spent a fair amount of time with SBS and EBS, I thought I'd put together a series of videos quickly covering some of the cool features of SBS 2008.

Here's my first one, the SBS 2008 Remote Web Workplace. 

Check it out and let me know what you think?  I'm planning on doing a series of these to introduce you quickly to several of our cool features.

Let me know what you want next?

Remote Web Workplace Demo Tidbit

See all the other SBS 2008 items at http://davidoverton.com/blogs/doverton/archive/tags/SBS+2008/default.aspx

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David

Having announced the SBS preview at SBS 2008 RC0 Public Preview I’ve tried to capture the SBS install process in pictures – I don’t think it needs much explanation.  If you have an OEM then much of this will be resolved by the Answer kit.  To find out about the OEM install process, have a look at TechNet Edge Video- SBS 2008 setup.

Other blogger's have covered the release:

http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2008/05/windows-small-business-server-2008_28.html

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/05/28/announcing-small-business-server-2008-rc0-public-preview.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/sbsaustralia/archive/2008/05/29/sbs-2008-public-beta-now-available-come-get-it.aspx

SBS 2008 starts with something akin to Windows Server 2008 and / or Vista Setup

Once this is completed, there are extra steps that are specific to SBS 2008:

It is possible that your system does not meet quite the right specification – mine has less than 4GB of RAM, while not a blocker, is a warning!   

You need to set the clock correctly (time and time zone) to ensure all the certificates work correctly

Install updates is a good idea!!

Some more installs

Enter the information about your organisation

Now it tries to name your domain, user etc.

The marketing messages while install happens:

That is the setup part of the process done.  The next entry will be the SBS console process to finish the install (and a few mistakes I made)

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David

Once again my internet provider and power company let me down at the weekend, causing the web site to be up and down – more down than up to be honest.  Now, one of the hard disks has put it’s hands up from the abuse so that is failing too, impacting performance.  Overall, until I find some more funds to sort the solution, it might mean the site is up and down for a few days … sorry.

Normal Service will resume as soon as possible.

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David

Well, it had to happen - another way to keep track of everyone and see what is going on in the world out there.  I've joined Twitter as UKSBSGUY - Twitter / davidoverton.  Always keen to learn more and get more feedback!!   = was twiter/uksbsguy, but I have updated it to reflect the change to davidoverton.com

See you "out there" or "out here" soon

David

Since I've had a few mails and texts about this - I thought I would say thank-you for the kind birthday wishes.  Yes, I'm getting older - now 37... luckily my daughters keep me young at heart [:-)]

David

I saw this and thought it was worth sharing - now that performance includes scaling "on chip", this 4 core chip is the next step.  This chip is for servers, so I don't expect to see it on my desktop any time soon!

Chips pass two billion milestone

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The chip has four separate cores

The first chip to pack more than two billion transistors has been launched by silicon giant Intel.

The quad-core chip, known as Tukwila, is designed for high-end servers rather than personal computers.

It operates at speeds of up to 2GHz, the equivalent of a standard PC chip.

It marks the latest milestone in chip technology; Intel released the first processor to contain more than one billion transistors in 2006.

"It's not revolutionary, it's another evolutionary step," said Malcolm Penn, an analyst at Future Horizons, of Tukwila.

Lots more at BBC NEWS | Technology | Chips pass two billion milestone

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David

Just in case you had not seen it - CRM 4.0 is available - http://www.microsoft.com/beta/downloads/Search.aspx?SearchText=crm.  Susanne Dansey has also been to one of the CRM days and has some good info at http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/320.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Ready for Download
By Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft announced Monday that it has released to manufacturing the long-awaited update to its Dynamics-branded customer relationship management software (CRM).

Previously codenamed "Titan," the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM actually has two names in its final form. For on-premise, customer-hosted, as well as partner-hosted deployments, the product has been dubbed Dynamics CRM 4.0. The company will also be offering the package on-demand in a Microsoft-hosted environment that it has named Dynamics CRM Live.

Existing and new customers will be able to download the update when it's released on the Web this week, a Microsoft official told InternetNews.com. The Microsoft-hosted version, however, continues to run under the early access program that the company began in September.

Microsoft plans to take that version live during the first half of 2008, said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "[In the meantime,] more than 100 customers are using [CRM Live] at this point," Wilson added.

The release of Dynamics CRM 4.0 comes two years after version 3.0 shipped. CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated CRM Live – a.k.a. CRM 4.0 -- during his keynote at the company's Convergence 2007 conference in March.

Probably the most notable feature in CRM 4.0 is its so-called "multitenant" architecture, which enables a hosting partner, for instance, to run only one copy of the server but support multiple customers simultaneously and securely. CRM 4.0 also features support for 25 different languages and multiple currencies, although not all will be available immediately, according to a company statement.

Among other additions, the package adds business process automation based on Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation. It also provides new collaboration capabilities with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, such as real-time presence indicators within the CRM application, the statement said.

With the move to two different names for the same code base, the company is aiming to differentiate its Microsoft-hosted Live version from the partner hosted version partly by pointing customers who need custom application work and support to those partners.

At the same time, however, CRM Live is another step in Microsoft's emerging "software plus services" initiative – meaning that the company has to be careful not to step too much on partners who both sell the package to on-premise customers as well as host it for customers.

Wilson emphasized that its CRM partners have much more expertise in deploying and supporting Dynamics CRM, particularly in vertical markets. Additionally, Microsoft's CRM Live offering targets "small, five to 50-user deployments," at least so far, he added.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Ready for Download

Some Good CRM blogs are:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jim_glass/

TIDBITS on Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM UK Blog

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David

I always find it sort of silly the way Microsoft is accused of being tight with information on how to develop with our products, yet there is loads and loads of information on MSDN and then the ability to license information as the Samba group did.  IBM is often 1st up to hit Microsoft with a "your mean and successful and patent everything" yet here is another article, another year and IBM leads the patent list:

This story appeared on Network World at http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/011408-patent-list.html

IBM retains slim lead among patent-winners; Samsung, Microsoft gain ground

U.S. patent backlog more than 1.1 million after drop in patents issued

By Jon Brodkin, NetworkWorld.com, 01/14/08

IBM secured 3,148 patents in 2007, besting all other competitors for the 15th consecutive year, but Big Blue's lead is getting slimmer and Microsoft charged into the top 10 with 1,637 patents, according to an analysis that will be released Monday.

Microsoft, which ranked No. 6 on the annual list after failing to crack the top 10 the previous two years, was one of only five companies to achieve even half of IBM’s total patent output, according to IFI Patent Intelligence, a Wolters Kluwer Health business.

IBM has flexed its muscle in numerous patent disputes, winning a cash settlement from Amazon last May after claiming Amazon used IBM technology to build many of its e-commerce systems. Earlier this month, IBM convinced the U.S. government to investigate Asustek, a Taiwanese computer vendor accused of using IBM technology without authorization.

<snip>

Here’s the full top 25 list from IFI:

1. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP, 3,148 patents
2. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR, 2,725
3. CANON K K JP 1987
4. MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO LTD JP, 1,941
5. INTEL CORP, 1,865
6. MICROSOFT CORP, 1,637

go to the article http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/011408-patent-list.html to see the rest of the list and the rest of the article

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David

It is funny.  As people get more used to patching operating systems they seem to think that makes them bullet proof on the whole system, yet this is simply not the case.  With Microsoft products people are used to patching them as needed to reduce the security risks on their systems.  Others will sight that their systems are already secure and therefore don't need patching.  I remember a few years ago watching the outcome of a Hackathon and the losing team lost not because of the OS security, but because of the application on top of it being unpatched and insecure.

If you have an application that uses Oracle, check it is being patched and secured as in a single month Oracle have been known to release 40+ patches.

Now before you go and pat yourself on the back for being so good at not having any Oracle systems, you might need to check your Windows applications are also patched.  Fro the Windows patch story, look at One-fifth of Windows apps go unpatched - down from 28% last May, but still need to be careful

Survey: Most Oracle professionals don't patch

Tom Espiner ZDNet.co.uk

Two-thirds of Oracle Database professionals are not applying critical patches, security company Sentrigo has found.

In a survey of 305 Oracle professionals, Sentrigo found the majority did not apply the Oracle patches released in Oracle Critical Patch Updates. This leaves users' databases open to compromise, according to analyst company Canalys.

When asked at various US Oracle User Group meetings last year, the Sentrigo survey found 67.5 percent of respondents said they had never applied any Oracle critical patches, and 90 percent said they had not applied the latest set of patches in the Critical Patch Update, which was released in October 2007.

Users cited concerns over downtime and compatibility with applications as reasons not to patch.

"On the face of it, these survey results look alarming," said Andy Buss, senior Canalys analyst. "Not patching can leave companies open to compromise. Companies need to get into the routine of testing and applying patches, for the sake of compliance."

Compliance issues can arise if companies are subject to regulations such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), where non-compliance can result in fines, or Sarbanes-Oxley, where weaknesses in security controls in systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning can lead to "consequences" for C-level officers, said Buss.

Oracle periodically releases patches in the form of Critical Patch Updates. The next Oracle Critical Patch Update is due to be released on Tuesday 15 January, and in a pre-release announcement, Oracle warned that this update will contain "27 security fixes across hundreds of Oracle products". Some of the vulnerabilities to be addressed in the Critical Patch Update affect multiple products, Oracle added.

Products affected include versions of Oracle Database, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management. Ten of the 27 vulnerabilities to be addressed may be exploited remotely without authentication, said the pre-release announcement.

Buss said that companies should patch vulnerabilities identified by the manufacturer, list updates to work out if they need to be installed, and instititute a timed procedure to test and update necessary patches.

However, there are also ways of mitigating the risk of compromise without patching, said Buss. Companies can deploy technologies that monitor data flows between database servers and hosts on the network, and inspect traffic for anomalies. Organisations should also build network architecture that doesn't allow PC traffic to go into the data centre, said Buss.

Survey: Most Oracle professionals don't patch - ZDNet UK

Some of the concerns in the article are things like "don't patch to avoid downtime" - why, being hit by a security flaw will generate a huge amount of downtime - when you realise your inpacted.  Monitoring traffic to look for concerns - again, too late if you monitor - just in time if you pass through rather than sit on the outside.

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David

I am lucky enough to have understanding neighbours and a family that understands that while I work hard all year, come Christmas I take time off and this includes the house being decorated in Christmas lights.

To see them this year, have a look at the photo album - http://uksbsguy.com/photos/doverton/tags/Christmas/default.aspx.

I will be posting some comments to the blog, but outside of that, have a GREAT holiday no matter how you celebrate it.

See you in 2008.

David and Family

I saw this and had to share - I want flash drives for my laptops - fast, low power... me, me, me!!

Toshiba to Make Solid-State Drives in Push for Flash

The memory chip maker is seeking to create new sources of demand for flash memory chips.

TOKYO (Reuters)—Japanese memory chip maker Toshiba Corp. said on Monday it would make flash-based solid state drives for notebook PCs, as it seeks to create new sources of demand for flash memory chips.

The world's No. 2 maker of NAND-type flash memory said its solid state drives would range in capacity from 32 gigabytes to 128 gigabytes, and that it will mass produce the 1.8-inch and 2.5 inch drives in May 2008.

Much more info at Toshiba to Make Solid-State Drives in Push for Flash

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David

It was a rare weekend, I had agreed to do some digging in my parents garden to put up two arches.  Some of you will know my dad - Derek Overton from various SBSC events.  They live just over the way from a piece of MOD land that used to be used for all sorts of things and bangs were not unusual.  Anyway, we were drilling into the ground when we hit something that should not be there - it was tubular and metallic. 

Having joked a bit that "who knows what it could be when around here" Dad decided to call the police.  They arrived, examined it, decided since one of them used to be in the army that it could be dangerous, so calls were made to the bomb squad.  The bomb squad said it sounded potentially hazardous, so came for a visit :-)

The neighbours were obviously quite interested when we had 2, then 3 police cars out the front of the house and finally the bomb squad van and army folk.

Finally, several hours after the 1st phone call the object was declared safe and that it had not ever have been a threat, but was shaped very similarly to some known ordinance, hence the concern.

Right, back to work and life.

David

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David

The site might be up and down a bit as I move things around over the weekend.  I am upgrading to newer versions two operating systems and moving the site onto a VPC for a short while.

 I will post when all is done :-)

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David

I saw this little posting by Darren and it reminded me of several stories.  One was the "mobile expert" around Denver this year and the other is the types of mails I sometimes get.  I have had mails that say things like:

• My computer is not working, can you fix it for me
• I am having problems with Outlook
• Apple won't support iTunes on Vista, but I want to use it, so can you fix it for me?

and my favourite

• I am having a problem where by people can't e-mail me back...... what e-mail address did they give....

What is really so funny about many of these is that they leave no contact details.  Just their name.  Now, even if I was able to fix their problems (and sometimes I can), without contact details it makes my life much harder to truly resolve the problems.

Am I responsible for Windows Mobile Software?

Today Gareth and I were walking along 16th Mall Street after having had some breakfast and I was wearing my Windows Mobile cap, as you do in Downtown Denver. I guy randomly stopped me and asked me if I worked for Microsoft and I said yes (although what I should’ve said was I work “with” Microsoft and not “for” them)!! He then prceeded to show me his phone and said “Windows Mobile software sucks” and so I explained to him that I personally didn’t write the software. As we walked away he continued by saying that I should get someone in Microsoft to fix it -”of course I’ll get someone right on it and get back to you on it” was my reply!!

 Office Rocker! : We're Microsoft, we know everything

No we don't.  But that doesn't stop people thinking we are the guys who control the Internet and can bend the IT time and space.  Always a pleasure to chat with Jason earlier today as I waited to do my presentation on Office futures.  It can be hard to present on the future of technology not just because we are talking about closely guarded secrets and its not because we can't plan, we do - no it's mainly just made harder because we don't actually own a frickin crystal ball.

Jason's story about the customer who lost it with him because he didn't have a 10 year plan for the future of the mobile industry amused me today.  As I said to him, you know its bad enough that anyone should get cross when we can't deliver beyond impossible, but maybe it's consoling to think that people's confidence in us is so high that intelligent execs believe we do know the future of the universe and are just being mean about sharing it.

My own anecdote was about when a precocious high school student guessed my alias (rather than search for it on the web) and started IM'ing me.  Now, being the affable chap I am (after my morning latte - don't try before) I do tend to happily chat to strangers who IM me out of the blue.  However, I do have work to do so after a few days the stalker behavior was getting slightly annoying.  So during yet another slightly banal convo I did some research.  An unusual surname of the stalker gave me where he lives, his school and his last terms results in maths and english.  Revealing this knowledge freaked out the stalker a bit, "how do you know that?" he says.  "Well, we're Microsoft, we know everything" I said.  No more was ever heard from him.. If only it was true :-)

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David

You may have seen a number of videos that I have recorded that were screen captures and my voice.  To do this I use the tools from Techsmith - Snagit.  For £24 I was able to buy the tools to record my screen and put it all together.  Overall I think it was a great investment which you can also get from http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp.

I have stored my videos on Windows Live Storage - more details of all the videos at Videos on Office usage - Document Inspector, Excel Templates and formatting, Outlook on the go and enhancing word documents for Office and Videos on Vista usage - Checking for updates, Backup options, Offline file options, How to use security in Internet Explorer, Sharing files for Vista.

While SnagIt produces .AVI files, good of Windows Movie Maker did the last little conversion to WMV files.  If you want output to many other formats, Nick has some pointers to more locations at Techsmith release new SnagIt Accessories - Nick Whittome - The Naked MVP.

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David

Following on from people who wanted a quicker blog, I have moved to another theme by Nick at http://www.nbdev.co.uk.  If you are seeing the blog "messed up", then you need to set your site options to Athena by clicking Edit Profile in the top right corner:

and then selecting the site options and choosing your theme:

thanks

David

I saw this on good old X (part of the GUI stuff for Unix and Linux systems) and it reminded me that although these codebases have had millions of hours of review (I worked on X systems from 1992-1995 inside a security project) they still have holes in them.  Anyone who thinks security is something that is fixed by more eyes, just using A/V or not using Microsoft can find many more of these sorts of examples.  It is also nice to see that the Microsoft Secure by Default / Secure by Design project was well received at Sun :-)

X Font Server (xfs) Security Hole in Solaris

As noted in the ZDNet posting X Font Server flaw hits Sun Solaris hard, the recently announced X font server vulnerabilities not only affect Solaris, but are exposed to the network by default in some Solaris installs.

What the article fails to mention is that it's only older installs that are vulnerable by default - Solaris versions up through Solaris 10 6/06 run xfs by default from inetd listening to the network. Solaris 10 11/06 and later Solaris 10 releases ask you at install time if you want your network services to default to being open or closed. Solaris Nevada/Express just closes them all by default and requires you to turn back on the ones you want. (These changes came from the Solaris Secure by Default project, which has more information on its project pages.)

X Font Server (xfs) Security Hole in Solaris [Alan Coopersmith's Weblog]

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David

I have to admit that this is not what I had been told, but Some think Windows Home Server will not be made available on MSDN .. if it is hurray, if not, then it will be back to an eval copy or god forbid... buying one!!

Windows Home Server to be made available on MSDN?

October 9th, 2007 — Philip Churchill

It has been announced on the MSDN Subscriptions Weblog that their acquisitions team is working with the product group to include Windows Home Server in the MSDN offering. The WebLog which is run by the managers of the online and offline MSDN Subscription program stated that they expect WHS will be offered, but do not have an estimate of availability.

Windows Home Server to be made available on MSDN? « MS Windows Home Server

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David